Comments on: Antietam’s Bloody Lane Trail http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/ A Journal of the Digitization of a Civil War Battle Tue, 14 May 2013 19:21:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Gerard Mayers http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/#comment-15345 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:51:52 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=5580#comment-15345 Another good booklet deailng with the Sunken Road and the Irish Brigade is the booklet put together about 12 years ago by Joe Bilby and Steve O’Neill titled “”My Sons Were Faithful and They Fought” and published by Longstreet House.

The booklet has information on the Irish Brigade not found anywheres else.

However I dis agree somewhat with how both authors have the Irish Brigade coming in to attack the Confederate defenses in the lane… they have the Irish attaching the Confederate defense in the area where the tower stands today… much much too far (IMHO) to the east for when Barlow puts the 61st/64th NY Vol Inf astride the lane in that classic flanking maneuver.

]]> By: Chris Evans http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/#comment-15322 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:25:06 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=5580#comment-15322 Excellent post. Great text and photographs I have always found the Bloody Lane portion of the Battle of Antietam to be very fascinating and moving. I enjoyed the book that came out last year , ‘Unfurl Those Colors: McClellan, Sumner, and the Second Army Corps in the Antietam Campaign’ by Marion V. Armstrong Jr. and the portion that covered Richardson’s tough assaults on the Bloody Lane. ‘My Brave Boys: To War with Colonel Cross and the Fighting Fifth’ by Mike Pride also had some vivid accounts of this portion of the battle from the Union regimental perspective.
Chris

]]> By: Rea Andrew Redd http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/#comment-15238 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:43:41 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=5580#comment-15238 Nice coverage of the trail Harry. With the National Regiment, I’ve pitched a tent on the Mumma Farm twice and a couple of years later did an on-the-clock September 17 hike with a NPS ranger. For me, it may be the most intriguing part of the Antietam NMP. In April Stephen Recker gave me a tour from the Pry House, over the Antietam crossings and then up through the Mumma and Roulette farms. We found what appears to be a photographic match of the farm the Barton used as a hospital and it is not the one where the Barton monument is (north of the Cornfield).

]]> By: Scott D. Hann http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/#comment-15230 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:37:24 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=5580#comment-15230 One of these days, I’d like to walk that ground again this time carrying the original sword of Captain Henry Sibley of the 29th Massachusetts. According to the regimental history, he “had a narrow escape from death” at Bloody Lane.

]]> By: Harry Smeltzer http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/#comment-15227 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:40:07 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=5580#comment-15227 Jim,

If you have a similar essay on the trail let me know and I’ll link to it.

]]> By: Harry Smeltzer http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/#comment-15225 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:36:57 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=5580#comment-15225 Dana,

Nothing beats walking the ground. Other tours I’ve been on swung further east to the other side of a stream where Richardson’s brigades formed up. The top of the observation tower is good to judge the changes in elevation and for orientation (or orientating, as the Army likes to say), much like we used to use the old National Tower at Gettysburg.

Unfortunately, Manassas has no such notable landmark. That’s a pretty rolling piece of real estate as well.

]]> By: Harry Smeltzer http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/#comment-15223 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:28:51 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=5580#comment-15223 Tom,

That’s what I thought. It’s pretty cool that it’s there, and I’m wondering if maybe the NPS is exhibiting a bit of a sense of humor by leaving it where it is. On second thought, nahhh.

]]> By: Harry Smeltzer http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/#comment-15222 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:27:21 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=5580#comment-15222 Art,

Yes, the 29th MA was second from the right of the brigade line, and there is a little rise in the ground in front of the lane that provided cover for a longer period for them than the rest of the brigade. This is refelcted in their casualties, which were but a fraction of the other regiments.

]]> By: Art Bergeron http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/#comment-15221 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:19:26 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=5580#comment-15221 Back before the park opened this trail, my wife and I walked out in front of the Sunken Road a ways to try to understand the terrain over which the Irish Brigade had attacked. We did this because of a description of the undulations in the land in a letter by one of the members of the 29th Massachusetts. It was exactly as he had written it. We gained a much better appreciation for the action by doing this. Who knows? We might even have stopped very near a spot he mentioned as having given the men a momentary escape from the musketry coming from the Confederate line.

]]> By: Tom Clemens http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/antietams-bloody-lane-trail/#comment-15220 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:29:32 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=5580#comment-15220 Nice pics Harry. Yes, a caisson missing a front chest, and not original.

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